Escape Route
by TheLightBeforeWeLand
Summary: AU /There is never a victory in running away from your problems. Maka knows this, but that does not stop her from doing it. She's made so many mistakes that she just can not deal with. Will a new friend she meets one night in a bar help her escape, or will he help her learn how to deal?


**All right, this is my first story so I'm really sorry if it sucks.**

**This was kind of inspired by a Paramore song of the same name. It doesn't completely follow the song, but it kind of has the same idea. If you haven't heard it, you should check it out.**

**I hope you enjoy this, and please feel free to tell me if I made any mistakes, or if it outright sucks. Seriously, I can handle mean criticism, :)**

**I, of course, do not own Soul Eater or any of its characters.**

**Escape Route**

Walking into some sketchy looking bar so late at night wasn't something she'd normally do.

Honestly, being in _this_ part of the city in the first place was pretty unusual for her. The eerie atmosphere of _downtown_ _Death City_ practically screamed "_danger!" _and someone as cautious as her would usually stay far away from any place like that.

But tonight she didn't care. Tonight she felt like she had a perfectly logical excuse to be doing something so unlike her.

She needed to forget. She had to forget the events from earlier that night and if getting completely wasted would help with that, then she'd do it. No matter how creepy the place was, or how stupid and dangerous it was for her to be in this kind of place by herself.

Maka Albarn made her way to the bar with all of the confidence she could gather up and sat on one of the stools. She looked around, and almost immediately regretted her decision.

The bar was filled with drunken men of all ages and sizes. The young blond really wished she had asked a friend to come with her, that or maybe she should've just gone to a friend's house to sulk there. Either of those choices would have been way safer, and they made more sense than coming down here alone.

But she wasn't going to back out. She was way too stubborn to get up and leave. She was going to be brave about this.

The sound of someone clearing their throat right next to her made her squeal and jump out of her seat.

Alright, so much for being brave.

She was so deep in thought she hadn't even noticed someone had sat down next to her. The man who had interrupted her thoughts was staring at her with his bored looking crimson eyes.

"You alright? You were staring into space for like, fifteen minutes. I don't even think you blinked more than three times. It was kind of creepy." He slowly said.

Maka felt herself blush a bit as she sat back into her seat. "I'm fine, thanks." She curtly replied. She really didn't want to have a conversation with this guy, and she hoped he'd gotten that hint from hearing the tone of her voice.

Apparently, he did because he said nothing more. When the bartender came, Maka asked for something strong and then began to drink away all her sorrows.

Maka and her new companion sat next to each other in silence. She glanced over at the man to examine him. He truly did have an odd appearance, with his white hair and blood red eyes. And she could've sworn she saw shark-like teeth in his mouth when he had spoken earlier.

He was slouched over the counter with an unreadable expression on his face. He looked like he was deep in thought and Maka couldn't help but wonder what his reason for being in the bar was.

"Why are you staring at me?"

She turned around and asked the bartender for a refill on her drink. Maka still wasn't in the mood to be socializing with anyone, so she just ignored the man and sipped at her now full glass.

"So you're just going to ignore me? You sit there staring at me, but won't even talk to me?" he said this with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Maka continued to act like he wasn't there, and took a bigger gulp of her drink. The stuff really did seem to be working since she didn't feel as tense as she had before. She liked the feeling the drink was giving her.

"That's some pretty strong stuff you're drinking there. Do you even know what it is?" this guy really wasn't letting up.

Maka finally brought her attention to the man and glared at him. "What do you want?"

"Hey, you're the one who was staring," he said with an amused smirk on his face. "But seriously, do you know what you're drinking?"

Honestly, she didn't, but she didn't see why that concerned him. "Why would you care about what I'm drinking?"

"This is your first time drinking, right?" he asked as he got a refill on his drink. When his glass was full again, he drank nearly all of it in one big gulp.

This obviously wasn't his first time drinking.

"What makes you think I haven't done this before?" she questioned, even though this really was her first time doing something like this.

"I dunno, it's kind of obvious," he began as he stared at her with that stupid smirk on his face, "You look so innocent, I bet you've never even been around alcohol before."

Alright, now Maka was getting annoyed. "Will you please leave me alone? I mean, seriously, what do you want from me?" she asked, not too nicely.

"Okay, I'll leave you alone, but you shouldn't drink something like whiskey if you've never even had a sip of alcohol before. You could end up poisoning yourself." After he said this, he turned around and pulled out his cellphone and started texting.

"_I've been drinking whiskey?" _Maka thought. She sat her glass down and thought about what else she could drink. She really wasn't that knowledgeable when it came to alcohol.

Instead of ordering something else, she thought back to what had happened earlier that night. With the annoying banter she'd had with her little "friend" she almost forgot the whole reason she was there in the first place.

Maka felt the tears gathering in her eyes as she remembered the little _incident _from before and she wiped them away before they could fall.

"Are you okay?" well, the whole _"I'll leave you alone"_ thing lasted for all of, what, fifteen seconds?

Maka let out a long sigh as she turned to face the man. "I thought you were going to leave me alone?"

"It's not cool for a guy to just sit there doing nothing while there's a pretty girl crying right next to him." He said sincerely.

Maka started blushing for the second time that night. "Look, I wasn't cry-"

"What's your name?"

"What?"_ What is with this dude?_

"It's kind of weird to have a conversation with someone when you don't even know their name, you know? Mine's Soul. Now what's yours?" he said, his smirk slowly making its way back onto his face. "Come on, I bet it's pretty." He urged when she didn't say anything.

She sighed, "My name is Maka."

He smiled," I was right, that is pretty. Now, you want to tell me what's wrong?"

"Why would I want to tell my problems to a stranger?"

"Telling your problems to strangers isn't really bad. We'll most likely never see each other again, and talking makes you feel better."

Maka debated on whether or not she should really spill her guts to the guy. Soul really didn't seem that bad, and he was right, they would most likely never see each other again.

What did she have to lose?

"Well, I…," she looked down into her half empty glass, and then looked up to meet Soul's eyes. "Life really sucks, you know?"

Soul blinked, "Yeah, I guess it does." He said unsurely.

"I found out my boyfriend that I've been seeing since high school has been cheating on me." Maka said, and then finished off the rest of her whiskey. While this was true, it wasn't the reason why she was there trying to get drunk.

The reason she was there was something she really didn't want to have to think about right now.

"Wow, that dude must be a real idiot." Soul said, sounding a little surprised. "I mean, to cheat on someone as beautiful as you is a really stupid thing to do."

Maka just sat there and stared at him, not even blushing at his compliment. He didn't look like he was drunk or anything, so why was he being so nice to her? Why was he so concerned with a stranger?

"Are you always this nice to women you've just met?"

"Well actually, I've been told I'm quite cold and distant around people. But there's just something about you that I really like." He honestly admitted.

"Or maybe you're just drunk and you don't realize it." Maka said with a slight smile.

He then began to laugh. "Yeah, maybe that's it."

Maka's smile got a little bigger. Soul really did seem like a nice guy, and she didn't mind talking to him as much as she did before.

"So, do you live around here?" Soul asked when his laughter subsided.

"No, actually I live uptown." Maka replied.

"What are you doing down here then?"

"Well, I was pretty upset earlier this night and I just had to get away," she began. "I didn't even have any intentions of coming to a bar. I just wanted to be alone, so I hopped in my car and drove someplace I knew no one would think to find me. Which was down here."

He nodded. "You know you shouldn't be all depressed over some jerk that broke your heart, right? It's his loss, not yours."

She laughed a little, "How do you know that?" she teasingly asked. "You don't know me. For all you know I could have been the worst girlfriend on the face of the earth."

"Yeah right." He smiled at her. "Like I said before, you seem too innocent. I bet you're the type of girlfriend that would go around baking the guy cookies or something."

"What about me makes me seem so innocent?"

"You're face screams it."

"How?"

"You just have an innocent look on your face. Plus you're so tiny and tiny people are innocent."

Maka scoffed, she wasn't that much shorter than him, but she was short compared to most people her age.

"Not all tiny people are innocent. If I were innocent I wouldn't be sitting in a bar right now, would I?" she smirked confidently.

"An innocent person trying to be a rebel would be." He smirked himself.

They both laughed and Soul got another refill for his glass, he also got something a little lighter for Maka so she wouldn't get alcohol poisoning with the way she was downing her whiskey.

Maka truly was feeling a lot better than she had when she came in. Being with Soul was really making this night a lot less miserable and pathetic than she'd thought it'd be.

About an hour later, Soul was struggling to get Maka- who was at that point a complete giggling mess- into his car. The two new friends had just exited the bar, and Soul being the gentlemen he was offered to take the drunken girl home.

She had lasted in the bar a lot longer than Soul thought she would've. He was only a little tipsy, so he was able to drive.

"Alright Maka," he began. "Can you tell me where you live?" He wondered why he even asked that. She was completely out of it and he couldn't find a cell phone on her to call a friend to get her or anything.

Maka's giggling then turned into full out laughter. "I live in candy land!" she then started laughing hysterically.

"Okay, guess you're coming home with me then." He said this coolly, but he was internally freaking out.

He was bringing home an attractive, drunk woman with him. How exactly could he not freak out? It wasn't like he was going to do anything to her, but it still felt weird to be doing this.

Soul opened his car door and sat Maka inside. When he got in the driver's seat he glanced over at Maka, who had tears in her eyes.

_Oh crap, she's an overemotional drunk._

"Wha- why are you do-doing this Soul?" she cried.

"Uh, what?"

"I- I thought we were friends" she hiccupped. The tears in her eyes had now fallen and the young woman was full out crying. "How can you just take advantage of me like this?!" And just like that she had gone from sadness to anger.

Soul was hopelessly confused. "What the hell are talking about?" _What's with the sudden mood change?_ He thought.

She glared at him with her piercing olive eyes. She was giving out a cold stare that could make a grown man wet his pants, and Soul wasn't afraid to admit that he was a little scared. "Don't think I don't know what you're trying to do here. You wanna rape me and I'm not having it!"

"What! Alright lo- Ah!"

Maka launched herself at Soul and tried to choke him.

"Holy shi-!" his head was then banged against the windshield.

He groaned in pain and clutched his head as he glared at Maka. She was giving him a triumphant smirk.

_You can't hit a girl, you can't hit a girl._

Soul kept repeating this in his head, but he really wanted to knock this girl's lights out. Drunk or not.

"Maka, I'm not going to rape you." He said as calmly as he could. "I'm just taking you to my place so you can get some sleep and sober up."

Maka scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh please, like you don't have any ulterior motives. You men are all the same! You're all a bunch of horny perverts who break women's hearts!" After she said this, she punched him in the jaw.

"Ow!" he was surprised by how painful that was. The girl was a lot stronger than she looked.

Soul was so close to just letting her out the car and leaving her to find a way home by herself. But he knew if he did that, she probably _would_ end up getting raped.

His head still hurt and now his jaw was killing him. _Am I seriously getting beat up by a girl here?_

Soul looked up at Maka was relieved to see she didn't look as angry as she had before. Now she just looked tired, and if she wanted to fall asleep, then that was fine by him.

Soul finally was able to start the car and begin his journey home. When he pulled up to his apartment, he turned to Maka and was surprised to see her staring right back at him with a strange look in her eyes.

"Soul…" she whispered as she leaned into him.

He widened his eyes. "Whoa!" he jumped away from her and got out of the car. No way was he going to let her kiss him. It wasn't like he didn't find the girl attractive, but she had just socked him in the jaw because she thought he was going to rape her. He didn't want to even imagine what she'd do if her angry drunk side came back while they were kissing.

Soul cautiously went over to the passenger side of the car and opened the door. Maka was crying.

_Oh joy._

He helped her out of the car and fished his apartment key out of his pocket. When he opened the door he led Maka to the couch. "Alright, so I'm gonna get you some blankets, kay?"

She didn't respond. Instead, she stared up at him with the most utterly _adorable _look he had ever seen.

Soul went to his linen closet to find a blanket for his guest. When he came back she was still sitting there with a miserable look on her face.

"You okay?"

"No. my life sucks." She whined.

"Look, if you're still upset about your ex-" he began, but was interrupted.

"It's not that." She looked like she was about to start crying again.

"Then what is it?" he asked, feeling pretty confused. She looked like she was sobering up a bit, so he didn't think she was spewing out nonsense.

"I'm tired." She said abruptly. She no longer seemed as sad as she had a moment before.

"Okay then. Here" He slowly said as he handed her the blanket. Maybe she isn't that sober after all.

Maka laid down onto the couch and snuggled into her blanket. She closed her eyes and appeared to have fallen asleep.

Soul stared at the girl for a moment before he shook his head and turned out the lights.

He couldn't help but wonder what exactly he had gotten himself into.

When Maka had awoken the next morning she had a killer headache. She sat up on the couch and held her head. She tried to think back to the night before, and she had remembered a few things.

She remembered going to some bar where she met some guy with weird colored hair. Maka tried to think back to why she was there in the first place. No matter how hard she thought, she kept drawing a blank.

She knew she didn't go because she caught Hiro cheating. It was something way worse. Something having to do with her-

"Yo."

Maka snapped out of her thoughts and met crimson eyes.

Then she screamed so loud she was sure she woke the dead.

Soul winced and covered his ears. "Calm down. Jeez, it's too early to be screaming like that."

"Wha what are you doing here?!" she screamed.

"Look around." He commanded.

When she did she saw that she was not in her apartment. This one looked a lot better than hers. It was bigger and had more furniture.

"We didn't do anything last night." He said. "You drank a little too much so I brought you back to my place to sleep."

Maka nodded. She recalled how nice he had been last night and she believed he didn't take advantage of her or anything. Besides, she was still wearing her clothes from that night and they still looked pretty neat.

"I'm sorry if I was any trouble last night." She said while looking down. "I should go."

Soul shook his head. "You weren't any trouble at all." He paused. "Except for when you accused me of trying to rape you and punched me in the face."

Maka gasped and looked at him. Sure enough there was a bruise right on his jaw. "I am so sorry! I-!"

He laughed, "It's cool. Really, you're a girl who knows how to handle herself, and that's pretty cool." He then genuinely smiled at her. "You wanna wash up and eat some breakfast? Your car is still down at the bar, so I can give you a ride to get it." He offered.

"Oh no I've already been such a huge burden. I can just catch a cab or-." She was then interrupted again.

"It's really not a big deal Maka."

She hesitated, but agreed. "Alright, but I'm giving you gas money."

"Cool. I'll go get you a tooth brush and some wash cloths. You can help yourself to whatever's in the kitchen." He said before leaving the room.

At that moment Maka then remembered what she had been trying to forget when she went to that bar. As she made her way to the kitchen she felt the tears fall down her cheeks.

"_I'm so sorry, papa."_

**Alright, I'm so sorry if this sucked and reading this was a complete waste of time. Please tell me what I can do to improve. I personally think this seemed a little rushed, but I want anyone took the time to read this to give me their honest opinion.**

**Anyway, I was planning on making this a multi-chaptered story, but I'm not sure if the rest of the gang will be featured as much. It's mainly going to focus on Soul, Maka, and their family problems.**

**Well, thanks for reading! If anyone actually did….**


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